Disk drives comprise a disk and a head connected to a distal end of an actuator arm which is rotated about a pivot by a voice coil motor (VCM) to position the head radially over the disk. The disk comprises a plurality of radially spaced, concentric tracks for recording user data sectors and embedded servo sectors. The embedded servo sectors comprise head positioning information (e.g., a track address) which is read by the head and processed by a servo control system to control the velocity of the actuator arm as it seeks from track to track.
During a write operation, a current is applied to a write element of the head (e.g., a write coil) to create a magnetic field which magnetizes the surface of the disk by orienting the direction of magnetic grains (e.g., horizontally in longitudinal magnetic recording, or vertically in perpendicular magnetic recording). The orientation of the grains exhibits hysteresis thereby generating their own magnetic field when the write magnetic field is removed. During a read operation, a read element of the head (e.g., a magnetoresistive element) transduces the magnetic field emanating from the disk surface into a read signal that is demodulated into an estimated data sequence.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art disk format 2 comprising a number of data tracks 4 defined by concentric servo sectors 60-6N recorded around the circumference of each data track. Each servo sector 6i comprises a preamble 8 for storing a periodic pattern, which allows proper gain adjustment and timing synchronization of the read signal, and a sync mark 10 for storing a special pattern used to synchronize to a servo data field 12. The servo data field 12 stores coarse head positioning information, such as a servo track address, used to position the head over a target data track during a seek operation. Each servo sector 6i further comprises groups of servo bursts 14 (e.g., A, B, C and D bursts), which comprise a number of consecutive transitions recorded at precise intervals and offsets with respect to a data track centerline. The groups of servo bursts 14 provide fine head position information used for centerline tracking while accessing a data track during write/read operations.